UTEP football coach Mike Price: Season salvageable for Miners; Tulsa up next

UTEP head coach Mike Price addresses members of the media at his weekly press conference to discuss the past weekend's loss against SMU and talk about the upcoming game against Tulsa Thursday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Ruben R Ramirez / El Paso Times)

Coach Mike Price feels that he is at his best when things are at their worst, when the adversity is stacked high and the lowest point arrives.

Well, it's here now.

His team is 1-5, an all-time worst in his nine-year era, getting ready to play at 5-1 Tulsa on Thursday as a two-touchdown underdog. The Miner offense is in disarray behind struggling quarterbacks, currently putting up a Price-era low 17 points per game that ranks 113th nationally out of 120 teams.

The Miners are coming off a 17-0 loss to SMU that sent the season to the brink, and while the announced attendance of 34,073 was good, that included 10,000 freebies to local teachers. The actual crowd appeared to be less than 30,000 at kickoff and many of those voted with their feet, leaving at halftime.

The 66-year-old Price, meanwhile, has six games left in his contract amid the obvious speculation and criticism from some fans who are reaching pitchfork-and-torch level.

At his Monday news conference, though, Price was as jolly as ever. He certainly didn't look like he was at the helm of the Titanic, he didn't look like a man who has given up on a season that needs an instant turnaround.

When asked -- repeatedly -- about his status and his future, Price talked about getting ready for Tulsa.

"If you don't stay the course, don't stay one game at a time, don't stay in the moment, you can get caught up in these types of things," Price said. "I don't get caught up in those things.

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"Our goal for the rest of the year is to win this game, take one game at a time, stay healthy, stay fresh. Give all to each game, each play, play with our best players and keep them healthy.

"We have not lost hope. When you lose hope, that's when things start going. We're not easing off anything."

The immediate task is to fix an offense that scored only on itself against SMU, a 17-0 loss that included a Mustang interception return for a touchdown. Price said he has a plan to do that, but as is always the case, he wasn't going to share those specifics.

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Bret Bloomquist

While he didn't outright say that quarterback Nick Lamaison would remain at starter over Carson Meger, he said he probably would, and Price didn't sound inclined to start making that kind of change.

"This is a time you don't throw the quarterback under the bus," Price said. "You support him, you support the offense, continue to encourage him. The thing I like about Nick, he takes criticism well, he's coachable.

"There's two people in the stadium fans will be upset with -- the coach and the quarterback. That's part of the deal."

As for how he will use Meger specifically and what UTEP will do differently on offense generally, Price said, "We'll save that until Thursday. We'll have a new plan against Tulsa, it'll stay similar. We'll have changes coming, but we'll keep that amongst ourselves.

"I thought Meger played one of his better games. He's earning his way, closing the gap between the quarterbacks."

He indicated the team might use more two-tight end sets, to play to what was supposed to be a team strength and one that looked good in the Miners' best drive of the night at the start of the third quarter.

He also went into story-telling mode.

Price told of his days at Washington State when the university president questioned if he was hanging with his quarterback too long.

"I think the right thing is to stick with Drew Bledsoe," Price recalled telling him.

He also related a story from early in his tenure at Weber State when the team lost its opener, the president was in the press box questioning assistant coaches, and Price joked that the staff prepared their résumés on the 24-hour bus ride home. Weber State won every regular season game after that.

At the first Monday morning practice since the start of the season -- a walk-through without pads and helmets, actually -- the rotation between Lamaison and Meger was the same as it has been all year.

"We need to focus on little things. Don't panic, we have a lot of season left," Lamaison said. "We never got the ball rolling on offense (Saturday), that's our focus this week, to get momentum going with the offense. We believe in the system."

Meger said, "We need to score points. We've got to start competing and make big plays. Executing is what it comes down to ... . We can't panic, we can't get in desperation mode."

Despite the hole UTEP is in, Price made a point not to sound a note of panic or desperation, but one of hard work.

"A lot of things aren't working well, take your pick," he said. "We correct as much as we can, as fast as we can. We stay the course with the people we have. We're not going to change in the middle of the stream.

"There are a lot of games left, a lot of games we can win. We're not throwing anybody under the bus."

Bret Bloomquist may be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; 546-6359. Follow him on Twitter @bretbloomquist.